Technology Strategy Of R&D Internationalization: An Empirical Study From A Developing Country

World Investment Report 2005 from UNCTAD reveals that “a new trend … is the emergence and fast growth of foreign R&D activities by TNCs (Transnational Corporations) from developing countries”. Numbers of studies have examined several issues of foreign direct R&D investments. Unfortunately, literature in this area has mainly contributed to the knowledge of R&D internationalization of the developed countries. There are only a few studies that have investigated R&D internationalization from the developing countries. Moreover, discussions on paths and technology strategies of overseas R&D establishments over time are still less emphasized.We examine how Taiwanese firms establish their overseas R&D centers and connect with the global innovation networks over time by conducting both surveys and in-depth interviews. We find four patterns of technology strategy of R&D internationalization for Taiwanese firms, including the technology-seeking strategy, the technology-exploiting strategy, the technology-harvesting strategy, and the technology-transforming strategy. Most firms present a technology-exploiting strategy, and few belong to a technology-transforming strategy. Moreover, evidence indicates that the most attractive destinations for overseas R&D centers have been shifting from the triad economies into the emerging economies (China, India and Russia).